


Love, Peter

by gizwish



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Insecure Tony, Irondad, Precious Peter Parker, Stepdad!Tony, Superfamily, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 11:51:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17580296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gizwish/pseuds/gizwish
Summary: Tony is a confused stepdad who is doing his best.





	Love, Peter

_Are you awake? -P_

Tony squinted at the text that jarred him from his work. The small interruption was unexpected, but welcome - it was the middle of the night, after all, and he’d promised Steve he would come to bed hours ago. But if Peter was texting this late at night, it had to be important. Sleep could wait.

_I’m always awake -T_

_Shouldn’t you be sleeping? -T_

He hoped their few years of living together hadn’t been enough for him influence Peter’s sleeping habits. They’d only started spending late nights together in the lab during Peter’s senior year of high school, and although Steve regularly interrupted their experiments to drag the two to bed, he was too pleased that they were spending time together to actually care.

_Can’t sleep -P_

Tony smiled. He remembered his first day of college, the sleep he lost the night before, the nerves of being in a new place with new people. He knew exactly how Peter was feeling.

_Big day tomorrow, huh? -T_

His own first day of college had only been slightly worse than he’d expected. There was of an appropriate amount of fawning over the young Stark heir, and the skeptics who doubted a 15 year old’s ability to keep up with them. Luckily, Peter wasn’t a Stark. Tony was sure his first day would be a much better experience than his own.

_I can’t do it -P_

_I can’t remember anything from orientation and I forgot where my classes are and I think my roommate hates me and Ned hasn’t texted me all day and what if he doesn’t want to be friends anymore? What if I can’t find my classes? Or what if I can’t get back to my dorm? I’m gonna get lost and my professors are gonna hate me and it’s gonna be terrible -P_

Tony blinked at the paragraph Peter sent him. He’d come to accept by now that Peter didn’t see him as a father, didn’t need him for comfort or advice. He must be desperate if he was texting Tony at two in the morning.

_That is way too much thinking for this late at night, kid. You have the school map, remember? It’s just the first day, everyone is gonna get lost. And I’m sure Ned still wants to be friends, he’s probably just getting ready for his first day -T_

_It won’t be terrible, that’s the sleep deprivation talking. Trust me -T_

Speaking of sleep deprivation. Tony started packing up his tools, exhaustion finally creeping in now that he wasn’t so focused. His phone lay silent for so long that he thought Peter must have fallen sleep. When a response finally came, he was laying in bed next to his husband, and he shielded the light with his hand so he could read it.

_You’re probably right. I just wanna get tomorrow over with -P_

_I’m kinda tired now anyway. Thanks for listening -P_

_I love you -P_

Just like that, Tony’s heart sank into his stomach. I love you. There’s no way... That wasn’t something they said to each other. Tony had accepted that, that Peter wasn’t comfortable having that kind of relationship, would rather see him as Cool Family Friend Tony than Respectable Parent. And Tony was fine with that! Really, he was. He enjoyed the time they spent together, he enjoyed their talks, even though the word “love” never came up. Peter thought he was texting Steve. That’s the only answer, Tony decided. It was possible, the boy obviously hadn’t been sleeping, wrong number texts happened all the time. And Tony hadn’t exactly done anything to distinguish himself. So he was going to ignore this, he decided. He would let Peter sleep, and he would let him believe he had talked to Steve, and he would ignore the way his chest ached.

Just as he was about to turn his phone off, the screen lit up with another text.

_Tell dad I said hi! -P_

Tony smiled, and closed his eyes.


End file.
